Efficient means of expressing cloned genes as protein product are an essential tool for the identification and characterization of cloned genes, the generation of large quantities of protein for structure-function analysis, and the production of protein for use in medicinal pharmaceutical preparations.
Protein expression systems are described in the literature, and for example as found in such reference works as Gene Expression Technology, Methods in Enzymology Vol. 185 (ed. David Goeddel et al., Academic Press, Inc., London, 1991), Gene Structure and Expression, 2.sup.nd Edition, J. D. Hawkins (Cambridge University Press, London, 1991) and their cited references. The expression of simple proteins can be routinely accomplished by using suitable Escherichia coli expression systems, however, these systems are typically inadequate for the expression of complex mammalian proteins. Mammalian expression systems have been developed for use in protein expression systems, however these systems have complex culture media requirements, and are extremely difficult and costly to maintain as large-scale, long-term culture systems.
Adaptation of protein producing cell lines to low-protein or serum-free media has been one method of simplifying the final purification of desired protein product, as described for example in U.S. Pat. No. 4,757,005 (incorporated by reference in its entirety). Many improved nutrient medium and serum free medium have been described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,143,842; 4,560,655; 5,024,947; 4,533,637; 4,767,704; 4,816,401; 5,631,159; 5,135,866 (these and all subsequently identified patents are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety) and the literature, as in for example Hedlund and Miller "A Serum-Free Defined Medium Capable of supporting growth of four established human prostatic carcinoma cell lines" The Prostate 24:221-228 (1994). Methods for the culture of mammalian cells have also been described, as in U.S. Pat. No. 5,122,469 and the literature. Large-scale culture and protein production techniques and apparatus have also been described, as in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,081,035 and 5,153,131, and the literature.
Thus it is well recognized in the art that there is a need for mammalian protein expression systems and methods, and in particular protein-free mammalian protein production systems suitable for large-scale protein production. This is especially true given the recent discovery of and fear of prion transmission and related disease from the use of mammalian protein supplements, especially sheep and bovine protein products.
The present invention addresses this need and describes the unexpected discovery that mammalian host cells can be adapted for efficient protein expression of a desired protein, by the transformation or co-transformation of the host cell for the expression of an additional protein, said additional protein being either alpha-2-HS-glycoprotein, or a mammalian fetuin protein.
For simplicity, in the remainder of the specification, unless otherwise identified, the term "fetuin" shall mean human alpha-2-HS-glycoprotein (AHSG), and all mammalian fetuin protein equivalents, including and not limited to bovine, murine, porcine, equine, and rat, their orthologs and derivatives.
Fetuin was the first fetal protein characterized in fetal calf serum, and was found to be homologous to human alpha-2-HS-glycoprotein (Dziegielewska et al., 1993, "alpha-2-HS-glycoprotein is expressed at high concentration in human fetal plasma and cerebrospinal fluid", Fetal Diagn. Ther. 8:22-27). The alpha-2-HS-glycoprotein is predominantly produced by liver hepatocytes, and is thought to undergo post-translational modification (Jahnen-Dechent et al., 1994, "Posttranslational processing of human alpha-2-HS-glycoprotein (human fetuin)" Eur. J. Biochem. 226:59-69). The cystatin-like domain of murine countertrypin has been found to inhibit trypsin (Yoshida et al., 1996, "Cystatin-like domain of mouse countertrypsin, a member of mammalian fetuin family, is responsible for the inhibition of trypsin" Biochemistry and Molecular Biology International 39(5):1023-1028). Fetuin/alpha-2-HS-glycoprotein has been found to be expressed during embryogenesis and found to promote bone remodeling and stimulate cell proliferation, as well as to act as an antagonist to the antiproliferative action of transforming growth factor betal (TGF-.beta.1) (Demetriou et al., 1996, "Fetuin/alpha-2-HS-glycoprotein is a transforming growth factor-.beta. Type II receptor mimic and cytokine antagonist", J. Bio. Chem. 271(22):12755-12761). Rat phosphofetuin (phosphorylated fetuin) was found to modulate hepatocyte HGF activity (Ohnishi et al., 1997, "Effect of phosphorylated rat fetuin on the growth of hepatocytes in primary culture in the presence of human hepatocyte-growth factor", Eur. J. Biochem. 243:753-761).
Fetuin, as a component of fetal calf serum, has been identified as a component of basic culture media, as in for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,757,005, and 5,143,842. However, it is the present invention which discovered that the transformation of host cells to express fetuin in conjunction with expression of a desired protein product allows for the efficient expression of the desired protein, and for the simplified transition of the transformed host cells to a serum-free or reduced protein culture system, allowing for large-scale production of protein.